The new reporting requirements are intended to help the CRA validate pandemic-related benefits.
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has recently announced that all employers in Canada must report certain employment payments related to COVID-19. With this, on each 2020 T4 slip, on the “Statement of Remuneration Paid”, you are to use new information codes that correlate to defined periods.
This additional information is intended to validate pandemic-payments made to individuals under the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and the Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB) programs. It is also intended to validate any payments made to employers under the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS).
Each period, aligning with the periods relating to COVID-19 benefit eligibility, pertains to the day the employee was paid – not necessarily the period of work the payment covered.
The new codes relate to the following time periods:
- Code 57: Employment income – March 15 to May 9
- Code 58: Employment income – May 10 to July 4
- Code 59: Employment income – July 5 to August 29
- Code 60: Employment income – August 30 to September 26
The above new reporting requirements are in addition to the existing requirement to report employment income in Box 14, “Employment Income” or Code 71, “Indian (exempt income) – Employment”.
The above information is current to Sept. 2020.